This Is Not a Drill

Last night, at the end of the infamous "Black Friday" after Thanksgiving, here in Vermont the temperature dropped, the wind picked up, and a small storm blew in with force. There's nothing unusual about this except that the storm brought with it the first real snow of the season. More significantly, it also brought the best sustained snowmaking temperatures yet. Right on the heels of their Thanksgiving feast, Okemo's snowmaking team made a meal of it, rendering the upper mountain trails unrecognizable from the days and weeks preceding. I took this photo from downtown Ludlow at mid-day today, and it's certainly a relief to look up at our mountain and to see real progress towards winter. The forecast for the next ten days looks great for snowmaking, so our long wait for skiing and riding should be nearly over. So, break out the boards and pack your gear, I expect to get the green light to start sliding and we'd better be ready.